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The Food of the Gods

It all began wit the research of two scientists, Mr. Bensington and Professor Redwood, into the principles of growth in living matter. The fruit of their labor was a substanceknown as "Herakleophorbia IV", but their own private term for it was "The Food of theGods" because of its very special properties. Their tests produced a baby chick large enough to be mistaken for a buzzard, and when the substance was consumed by rats, they grew bigger than horses.

When the Sleeper Wakes

Graham was a young man when he was overcome by a strange deep sleep. He was still youthful when he finally woke up - two hundred years later! And the world that he resumed life in was a fabulous one, a world of great marvels and scientific achievement, whose strange underlying economy was that it was all his private property, for the acquisition of interest and the testaments of others had made Graham the Sleeper the sole final owner of everything - with an administrative council that dictated to the world in his name!

The World Set Free

In this thought-provoking masterpiece, H.G. Wells predicts the inventions that will inadvertently lead to mass destruction, forcing the world to "start over." You will see many similarities between H.G. Wells' new world and today's world due to the recent technological revolution. This stimulating novel will leave you wondering if and when the remaining predictions will come to pass!

The War of the Worlds

First published by H. G. Wells in 1898, The War of the Worlds is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator intones, "No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's."

The History of Mr Polly

Mr Polly is an ordinary middle-aged man who is tired of his wife's nagging and his dreary job as a gentleman's outfitter in a small town. Faced with the threat of bankruptcy, he concludes that the only way to escape his frustrating existence is by burning his shop to the ground and killing himself. Unexpected events, however, conspire at the last moment to lead the bewildered Mr Polly to a bright new future - after he saves a life, fakes his death, and escapes to a world of heroism, hope and ultimate happiness.

Tales of Space and Time

Enjoy stories of the past and the future by the author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. This collection includes The Star, The Crystal Egg, Stories of the Stone Age, A Story of the Days to Come and The Man Who Could Work Miracles.

Love and Mr Lewisham

Love and Mr Lewisham is a hugely uplifting tale from the pen of one of our greatest writers. Wells drew on his own experience as a young teacher to provide the background and, one suspects, the emotional drama. The plot enables him to satirise the educational establishment and deliver many wry observations on Victorian morality and the obsession with the supernatural. One day Mr Lewisham sits at his makeshift desk at his lodgings. He is an assistant master at Whortley proprietary school.

Rendezvous with Rama

At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence.

The Invisible Man

On a freezing February day, a stranger emerges from out of the gray to request a room at a local provincial inn. Who is this out-of-season traveler? More confounding is the thick mask of bandages obscuring his face. Why does he disguise himself in this manner and keep himself hidden away in his room? Aroused by trepidation and curiosity, the local villagers bring it upon themselves to find the answers.

Mountain Man

Boomstick. Samurai bat. Motorcycle leather. And the will to live among the unliving. Augustus Berry lives a day-to-day existence comprised of waking up, getting drunk, and preparing for the inevitable day when "they" will come up the side of his mountain and penetrate his fortress. Living on the outskirts of a city and scavenging for whatever supplies remain after civilization died two years ago, Gus knows that every time he goes down into undead suburbia could be his last.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

When a brute of a man tramples an innocent girl, apparently out of spite, two bystanders catch the fellow and force him to pay reparations to the girl's family. The brute's name is Edward Hyde. A respected lawyer, Utterson, hears this story and begins to unravel the seemingly manic behavior of his best friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and his connection with Hyde.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The year 1866 was marked by a unique incident, a mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon, and rumors agitated the maritime population and excited the public mind, especially seafaring men. Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries, and the governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.

Publisher's Summary

A comet speeds toward earth, a deadly, glowing orb that soon fills the sky and promises doom. But mankind is too consumed with greed and violence to care. As luminous green trails of cosmic dust and vapor stream across the heavens, blood flows beneath: nations wage all-out war, bitter strikes erupt, and jealous lovers plot revenge and murder. The Earth slips past the comet by the narrowest of margins, but all succumb to the gases in its tail. When mankind wakes up, everyone is completely and profoundly different. In the Days of the Comet is H. G. Wells' classic tale of the last days of the old Earth and the extraterrestrial change that becomes the salvation of the human race.

I agree with Mike of Baton Rouge. This was a very long, very boring audiobook. Probably the worst I have ever listened to. I really wanted to like this story. A comet passes by the earth covering it in a green gas that makes everyone fall asleep. When they wake up, no one has an evil, jealous, war-like thought in their heads. Good concept, poor execution. Three hours into this novel and we are still slogging through the life of the main character who comes off as a young, wannabe socialist. If you are expecting science fiction in the vein of "War of the Worlds" or "The Time Machine" this is not the novel for you. "In the Days of the Comet" will turn off anyone except the most die hard fan of Edwardian fiction. 104 years after the publication of this book and we still have the same human failings that author Wells rails against.

I expected more from Wells. This story is a long, tiresome read from the diary of the main character; a poorly developed, self-absorbed, self-depricating pitiful waste of human life. It contrasts his life before and after "the change" brought on by the Comet's arrival which brings on a cliche, impractical utopia in the human race.

The story is paced mindnumbingly slowly with more than one sudden climax coming out of nowhere. Just when you think it's over, there's yet more meandering and mucking around in this character's very uninteresting head. You keep waiting for the author "to get on with it" but he seems to come up with more and more meaningless dribble just to fill space.

The reading is monotone and could have easily been read by computer. It is completely without the passion the story was supposed to be invoking in the reader. Perhaps this was the most important reason why it failed to elict in me any sympathy or joy in the reading of the character's angst and salvation.